Halloween certainly spooked Hollywood this weekend: With moviegoers out trick-or-treating or partying Saturday night, the total box office was down 27 percent from last week. (Even so, the month's total theater revenues -- $454.7 million -- set an October record, beating last year's high by 19 percent.) The holiday-appropriate "John Carpenter's Vampires" benefited most, finishing No. 1 with an estimated $9.2 million, making it the largest opening ever on a Halloween weekend. (The second largest was "Halloween II" in 1981, with $7.4 million.)

After "Vampires" came "Pleasantville" ($6.6 million, a below average 25 percet drop from last week), "Practical Magic" ($5.1 million), "Antz" ($4.1 million), and "Bride of Chucky" ($4.02 million). With its total at $67.4 million, DreamWorks SKG's "Antz" has now passed "Beavis and Butt-head Do America" as the top-grossing animated feature not released by Disney. But Disney exile-turned-DreamWorks exec Jeffrey Katzenberg undoubtedly won't rest until Michael Eisner hands over the trophy (held by "The Lion King" at $312.9 million). The next title to take a shot at the leader: SKG's "Prince of Egypt" (opening Dec. 18).

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